Rural hospital leaders seek support for key issues from Capitol Hill

AHA News NowMar 6, 2014

Rural hospital leaders gathered today on Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to extend Medicare provisions for rural hospitals, remove the 96-hour rule for critical access hospitals, and provide relief from the direct supervision policy for critical access and rural prospective payment system hospitals with 100 or fewer beds. As Congress prepares to address a physician payment fix and Medicare provisions for rural hospitals that expire at the end of March, lawmakers will make decisions that have profound effects on rural hospitals, AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock told participants in the association’s rural Advocacy Day. “If they don’t hear from you, they will not consider those effects when they get ready to vote.” Before visiting lawmakers’ offices, participants were briefed by AHA staff on the latest rural health care developments in Washington.